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Y ERFID P A IN IOW Perfi dy in Iowa Page 1 December 03, 2004 Group Campaigns Against Kosher Meat BY Y. E LCHONON The militant vegetarian group People consequently, American Law.” fi led a complaint with the US Department of for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, better Lewin also suggested that PETA could itself Agriculture. alleging that the plant is violating known by its acronym, PETA, has embarked be subject to legal action for its unwarranted Jewish law by not instantly killing the animals, on a new public relations campaign attacking efforts to harass legitimate kosher meat and is therefore also violating the 1902 federal AgriProcessors Inc., the Postville, Iowa- operations in this country. Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act. based one of the world’s largest kosher meat PETA is known for its aggressive tactics The complaint sought suspension of the plant’s processors, and the source for kosher meat in promoting its animal-rights agenda. In license and possible criminal proceedings. products widely sold under the Rubashkin one of its more tasteless campaigns, it ran Steven Cohen, a spokesman for the USDA, and Aaron’s Best labels. PETA accuses the advertisements a few years ago with the phrase confi rmed that the agency had received the company of violating both civil humane “Got prostate cancer?” showing Rudolph PETA letter but said it was waiting to review slaughter laws and Halacha. Giuliani, the then-New York City mayor who the video before deciding how to handle the PETA began by sending the meat processor had been recently diagnosed with the disease. complaint. a letter a year and a half ago with unspecifi c The ads also included the line: “Drinking milk Rabbi Menachem Genack, head of the complaints about the company’s operating contributes to prostate cancer.” Orthodox Union’s OU Kashruth Division, procedures. The company’s lawyer, Nathan AGUDATH ISRAEL which also provides supervision of kosher Lewin, responded by offering to discuss and, RESOLUTION CONDEMNS meat products from the same plant, said he had if necessary, fi x any problem the group had. discussed the issue with USDA offi cials, and is But Lewin told Binyamin L. Jolkovsky, of ATTACK ON SHECHITA confi dent that government guidelines are being JewishWorldReview.com, that PETA never PETA’s campaign against a prominent kosher followed to the federal agency’s satisfaction. responded. meat manufacturer prompted the passage of a The company also issued a statement saying, Last week, Lewin, was contacted by the special resolution at the closing session of the “Agripro-cessors does not control anything New York Times seeking comment on an Agudath Israel of America’s annual convention that happens in the kosher ritual processes. We undercover videotape the paper received from in Stamford, Connecticut, at the behest of adhere strictly to the instructions given to us PETA, which it claimed documented abuses by Chaim David Zwiebel, its executive vice by the rabbinic authorities and will continue the kosher meat manufacturer. Lewin viewed president of government and public affairs. By to do so. As we always have, we will also the tape at the New York Times’ Manhattan unanimous vote, Agudath Israel condemned continue to follow the strict guidelines set out offi ces, along with Rabbi Chaim Kohn, Chief what it termed a “vicious and unethical attack by both federal and Jewish law for the humane Dayan of Khal Adath Yeshurun, which is one of on Jewish religious practice.” The resolution treatment of animals during the slaughter the kashruth supervision agencies that provides also noted that among the fi rst Nazi attacks process.” the Hashgocha on the meat plant. It was not against Jews was “peddling photographs of Rabbi Genack even tried, unsuccessfully, clear when or if the Times plans to publish a allegedly ‘cruel’ kosher slaughter,” and that to explain the OU- approved and supervised PETA “now follows in that vile course.” story based on the PETA accusations and tape. shechita practices in use at the plant to Aaron The resolution also declared that the Torah’s Lewin told Jolkovsky that the videotape, Gross a Jewish student at Harvard University concept of humane treatment of animals is well which was supposedly shot at the meat packing who is a militant vegetarian group, and is ahead of the standards promoted by secular house in August and September of this year, PETA’s self-appointed expert on kosher organizations such as PETA. contains graphic and bloody pictures of the requirements. Gross denied that the PETA “Shechitah often comes under attack by kosher slaughter process, in an attempt to campaign is motivated by anti-Semitism and elements that are unsavory, and in general shock the viewer, but no violations of either claimed that it does not object to shechita PETA is not an organization that commands civil law or the rules of shechita. “when properly practiced.” our great respect,” said Rabbi Avi Shafran, a Lewin, who is acknowledged to be the spokesman for Agudath Israel Another PETA expert who criticized the foremost legal experts in church-state issues, OU-approved shechita procedures at the contends that “all PETA wants to do is infl ame PETA FILES A COMPLAINT Agriprocessors plant was Temple Grandin, the public against kosher slaughter.” The WITH THE USDA an associate professor of animal science at group, he added, “just doesn’t understand On Monday, PETA took the next step in Colorado State University, with no religious shechita — what’s permitted under Jewish, and its campaign against Agriprocessors, when it credentials at all. Page 2 Perfi dy in Iowa May 16, 2008 Kosher Meat-Packing Plant Raided; Hundreds Arrested BY DEBBIE MAIMON foreignfof workers were “illegals.” The search warrant cited suspicions of “identify theft and fraudulent use of socialsoc security numbers, as well as reports of multiple violations of immigration laws”law that came from an “informant” at thethe plant, Des Moines Register of Iowa reported.rep AccordingA to the federal search warrant,warr authorities relied heavily on this informant who infi ltrated the plant withwiw th documents provided by ICE. The informantinform was hired in January and wore secret recording devices monitored by ICE, theth Des Moines Register noted. As MaManyny The raidr at Agri mimicked the dozens of partpart of a wewerere raids carriedcar out in recent months on fi rms nationwidenationwide dedetainedtained in lolocalcal jails, who employemp foreign labor, in a nationwide crackdown while the majority were herded into buses federalfederal eeffort to curb illegal immigration on illegal and driven to a makeshift detentiondetention cecenternter into the United States, an AP article noted. immigrants,immigrants, in the town of WWaterloo,aterloo an hhour and a half It was the largest raid of its kind ever federalfeeded ral authoritiesauthorities ououtt of PPostville. carried out in U.S. history. in leagueleague wiwithth sstatetate and In public schools throughout Postville, Company leaders cooperated fully with locallocal lawlaw enforcementenf mounted a ICE offi cials halted classroom proceedings federal authorities, halting operations and massivema i raid this Monday on the world’s to interrogate the students. “ ‘Who in opening up the facilities for a thorough largest kosher meat-packing plant, this room is legal?’” an offi cer would search. AgriProcessors, in Postville, Iowa. ask. “They separated all the kids with a By evening, the police had released Hundreds of offi cers from Immigration Latino look, and took them to a room for dozens of people, either for “humanitarian and Customs Enforcement (ICE), FBI and interrogation,” a Postville resident told reasons” or because the detainees Homeland Security offi cers, together with Yated. were able to produce valid documents. state troopers and local police descended Families were left in limbo, as husbands, Hundreds remain in detention, under threat on the 60-acre plant Monday morning. wives and children searched worriedly for of deportation. After cordoning it off on all sides, arrested family members. they conducted searches and interrogated COMPANY COOPERATED AMAZING GROWTH hundreds of workers, arresting almost 400. Agriprocessors Inc. opened in Postville, The plant employs well over 1,000 WITH FEDS Iowa, nearly 20 years ago, under Aaron people. In addition to shochtim and Regulations at AgriProcessors require Rubashkin, bringing with it a promise mashgichim, hundreds of workers from all workers to show proof of residence, of jobs and stimulating a revival of the Mexico, Guatemala, Russia and Ukraine valid social security numbers, and legal region’s economy. Rubashkin and his two as well as many native Iowans, make a papers permitting them to work in the sons, R’ Shalom and R’ Heshy, built up livelihood at AgriProcessors. United States, a spokesman for the the company over the past two decades, In the raid, 314 men and 76 women- company told Yated. turning it into the world’s largest kosher including any foreign workers who could Yet, the federal affi davit, while meat-packing plant. not immediately produce evidence of their acknowledging the plant’s regulations, said A small community comprised of legal status -were arrested for immigration the raid was authorized after information shochtim and mashgichim and their families violations. was received that many of AgriProcessors’ grew up around the meat plant. Today they Perfi dy in Iowa Page 3 comprise a warm, close-knit community of prosecution not only of illegal aliens but “All of this money is pumped back into a few hundred people, nurtured by a strong their “employers” who “help make it the economy,” the employee noted. religious infrastructure consisting of happen,” critics were quick to point out Since only about a half of each cow can yeshivahs, shul, mikvah, chevrah kadisha, the huge losses to the economy that a shut- be used for kosher beef, the remainder of gemachs and other institutions, under the down or relocation would bring about.